Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Southampton and
Norwich City at St Mary's Stadium on Wednesday Nov 28,2012.

The fact that the referee was the most noteworthy feature of this match may offer some indication of its quality. Nigel Adkins and Chris Hughton both opted for safety, but unless their sides can show more poise and guile in the final third, safety may not be what they end up with. Two fortuitous goals from set-pieces, one from Rickie Lambert and one from Robert Snodgrass, were the only real incidents of note. All else evaporated into the cold night.

Mark Clattenburg could scarcely have picked a less eventful game for his refereeing comeback. It was a mottled, marbled match, characterised by raking clearances and those high, aimless crosses that are simultaneously so hopeful and so hopeless. On balance, Southampton had marginally the better of things, but with the more expensively-assembled squad and home advantage, they would have expected more.

Still, this was another cobblestone laid on Southampton’s road to recovery, an example of their newly-discovered solidity at the back. “That’s eight points in four games, so we’ll take the positives,” Adkins said. “And we could have won all four. The goal on half-time’s gone and changed the complexion of the game.”

It was Lambert who scored after a tepid first half-hour. Adam Lallana’s free-kick ricocheted off Bradley Johnson and fell kindly for Lambert, who poked the ball in with his toe. Norwich howled indignantly, fancying they saw Lambert’s hand touch the ball but Clattenburg refused their appeals.

“There were a lot of bodies around the ball, but the players are all adamant it was handball,” Hughton said. “But it was a difficult one to see.”

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Just as Southampton sought to consolidate their advantage with a 15-minute break , they lapsed for a fateful second and conceded.

Nathaniel Clyne erred first, bringing down Snodgrass around 25 yards out. Snodgrass swung in the free-kick left-footed. It was poor, lacking power and elevation. A deflection off Jason Puncheon slowed it further, and goalkeeper Paolo Gazzaniga looked to have it covered. Instead, the ball scuttled underneath his body and into the net, sending Adkins into paroxysms of rage on the touchline. Gazzaniga, a summer signing from Gillingham, only displaced Artur Boruc and Kelvin Davis a couple of months ago. He may soon find himself back on the bench.

“We’ve got three good goalkeepers, and there’s competition for places,” Adkins said. “He knows he’s got to save that.” But he criticised Clattenburg for calling the foul. “I don’t think it was a free-kick,” he complained. “Clyne says he’s touched the ball as well.”

Southampton pressed for the winner that would lift them out of the bottom three. Puncheon had a shot blocked. Lambert chose to pass from 12 yards out when he had more time than he realised.

There was, you felt, time for one more clear opportunity to win the game. It fell to Wes Hoolahan, who ran on to a bouncing Mark Bunn goal-kick, but he tried to turn Jose Fonte rather than go straight for goal, and the chance was lost. It rather summed up the night.